New York, NY – Unionized Staff at ProPublica Walk Off the Job in Protest of Management’s Refusal to Agree to a Contract Including Fair AI Protections, Job Security, and Wages.
Unionized staff at investigative nonprofit newsroom ProPublica walked off the job Wednesday in a one-day strike, setting up picket lines outside the company’s New York City headquarters, as well as in Chicago and Washington, D.C. ProPublica Guild members asked readers and supporters to not visit ProPublica’s website or click on any company’s content on other platforms during the course of the strike.
“Our members are standing together to demand that management agree to very basic, very standard union protections,” said Jeff Ernsthausen, a senior data reporter and secretary of the ProPublica Guild. “We care deeply about our work, so we call on management to understand the gravity of this walkout and to come to the table ready to take our concerns seriously.”
The ProPublica Guild represents journalists, communications staff, developers, reporting fellows, copy editors and other workers and is a bargaining unit of The NewsGuild of New York. The union won voluntary recognition in August 2023 and began bargaining in December 2023. In March, the unit authorized the strike, with 92% voting “yes” and 99% of the union participating in the vote.
During more than two years of active bargaining, ProPublica management has rejected any restrictions on replacing jobs with AI, refused to agree to standard job security protections and seniority provisions in layoffs, and denied workers wage increases that keep up with the rising cost of living.
